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<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div>
<h2 class="title">
<a id="_most_important_queries"></a>Most Important Queries<a class="edit_me edit_me_private" rel="nofollow" title="Editing on GitHub is available to Elastic" href="https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch-definitive-guide/edit/2.x/054_Query_DSL/70_Important_clauses.asciidoc">edit</a>
</h2>
</div></div></div>
<p>While Elasticsearch comes with many queries, you will use
just a few frequently. We discuss them in much greater
detail in <a class="xref" href="search-in-depth.html" title="Search in Depth">Search in Depth</a> but next we give you a quick introduction to
the most important queries.</p>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div>
<h3 class="title">
<a id="_match_all_query"></a>match_all Query<a class="edit_me edit_me_private" rel="nofollow" title="Editing on GitHub is available to Elastic" href="https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch-definitive-guide/edit/2.x/054_Query_DSL/70_Important_clauses.asciidoc">edit</a>
</h3>
</div></div></div>
<p>The <code class="literal">match_all</code> query simply matches all documents. It is the default
query that is used if no query has been specified:</p>
<div class="pre_wrapper lang-sense">
<pre class="programlisting prettyprint lang-sense">{ "match_all": {}}</pre>
</div>
<div class="sense_widget" data-snippet="snippets/054_Query_DSL/70_Match_all_query.json"></div>
<p>This query is frequently used in combination with a filter—​for instance, to
retrieve all emails in the inbox folder. All documents are considered to be
equally relevant, so they all receive a neutral <code class="literal">_score</code> of <code class="literal">1</code>.</p>
</div>

<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div>
<h3 class="title">
<a id="_match_query"></a>match Query<a class="edit_me edit_me_private" rel="nofollow" title="Editing on GitHub is available to Elastic" href="https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch-definitive-guide/edit/2.x/054_Query_DSL/70_Important_clauses.asciidoc">edit</a>
</h3>
</div></div></div>
<p>The <code class="literal">match</code> query should be the standard query that you reach for whenever
you want to query for a full-text or exact value in almost any field.</p>
<p>If you run a <code class="literal">match</code> query against a full-text field, it will analyze
the query string by using the correct analyzer for that field before executing
the search:</p>
<div class="pre_wrapper lang-sense">
<pre class="programlisting prettyprint lang-sense">{ "match": { "tweet": "About Search" }}</pre>
</div>
<div class="sense_widget" data-snippet="snippets/054_Query_DSL/70_Match_query.json"></div>
<p>If you use it on a field containing an exact value, such as a number, a date,
a Boolean, or a <code class="literal">not_analyzed</code> string field, then it will search for that
exact value:</p>
<div class="pre_wrapper lang-sense">
<pre class="programlisting prettyprint lang-sense">{ "match": { "age":    26           }}
{ "match": { "date":   "2014-09-01" }}
{ "match": { "public": true         }}
{ "match": { "tag":    "full_text"  }}</pre>
</div>
<div class="sense_widget" data-snippet="snippets/054_Query_DSL/70_Match_query.json"></div>
<div class="tip admon">
<div class="icon"></div>
<div class="admon_content">
<p>For exact-value searches, you probably want to use a filter clause instead of a
query, as a filter will be cached.  We’ll see some filtering examples soon.</p>
</div>
</div>
<p>Unlike the query-string search that we showed in <a class="xref" href="search-lite.html" title="Search Lite">Search <em>Lite</em></a>, the <code class="literal">match</code>
query does not use a query syntax like <code class="literal">+user_id:2 +tweet:search</code>. It just
looks for the words that are specified. This means that it is safe to expose
to your users via a search field; you control what fields they can query, and
it is not prone to throwing syntax errors.</p>
</div>

<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div>
<h3 class="title">
<a id="_multi_match_query"></a>multi_match Query<a class="edit_me edit_me_private" rel="nofollow" title="Editing on GitHub is available to Elastic" href="https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch-definitive-guide/edit/2.x/054_Query_DSL/70_Important_clauses.asciidoc">edit</a>
</h3>
</div></div></div>
<p>The <code class="literal">multi_match</code> query allows to run the same <code class="literal">match</code> query on multiple
fields:</p>
<div class="pre_wrapper lang-sense">
<pre class="programlisting prettyprint lang-sense">{
    "multi_match": {
        "query":    "full text search",
        "fields":   [ "title", "body" ]
    }
}</pre>
</div>
<div class="sense_widget" data-snippet="snippets/054_Query_DSL/70_Multi_match_query.json"></div>
</div>

<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div>
<h3 class="title">
<a id="_range_query"></a>range Query<a class="edit_me edit_me_private" rel="nofollow" title="Editing on GitHub is available to Elastic" href="https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch-definitive-guide/edit/2.x/054_Query_DSL/70_Important_clauses.asciidoc">edit</a>
</h3>
</div></div></div>
<p>The <code class="literal">range</code> query allows you to find numbers or dates that fall into
a specified range:</p>
<div class="pre_wrapper lang-sense">
<pre class="programlisting prettyprint lang-sense">{
    "range": {
        "age": {
            "gte":  20,
            "lt":   30
        }
    }
}</pre>
</div>
<div class="sense_widget" data-snippet="snippets/054_Query_DSL/70_Range_filter.json"></div>
<p>The operators that it accepts are as follows:</p>
<div class="variablelist">
<dl class="variablelist">
<dt>
<span class="term">
<code class="literal">gt</code>
</span>
</dt>
<dd>
Greater than
</dd>
<dt>
<span class="term">
<code class="literal">gte</code>
</span>
</dt>
<dd>
Greater than or equal to
</dd>
<dt>
<span class="term">
<code class="literal">lt</code>
</span>
</dt>
<dd>
Less than
</dd>
<dt>
<span class="term">
<code class="literal">lte</code>
</span>
</dt>
<dd>
Less than or equal to
</dd>
</dl>
</div>
</div>

<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div>
<h3 class="title">
<a id="_term_query"></a>term Query<a class="edit_me edit_me_private" rel="nofollow" title="Editing on GitHub is available to Elastic" href="https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch-definitive-guide/edit/2.x/054_Query_DSL/70_Important_clauses.asciidoc">edit</a>
</h3>
</div></div></div>
<p>The <code class="literal">term</code> query is used to search by exact values, be they numbers, dates,
Booleans, or <code class="literal">not_analyzed</code> exact-value string fields:</p>
<div class="pre_wrapper lang-sense">
<pre class="programlisting prettyprint lang-sense">{ "term": { "age":    26           }}
{ "term": { "date":   "2014-09-01" }}
{ "term": { "public": true         }}
{ "term": { "tag":    "full_text"  }}</pre>
</div>
<div class="sense_widget" data-snippet="snippets/054_Query_DSL/70_Term_filter.json"></div>
<p>The <code class="literal">term</code> query performs no <em>analysis</em> on the input text, so it will look for exactly
the value that is supplied.</p>
</div>

<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div>
<h3 class="title">
<a id="_terms_query"></a>terms Query<a class="edit_me edit_me_private" rel="nofollow" title="Editing on GitHub is available to Elastic" href="https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch-definitive-guide/edit/2.x/054_Query_DSL/70_Important_clauses.asciidoc">edit</a>
</h3>
</div></div></div>
<p>The <code class="literal">terms</code> query is the same as the <code class="literal">term</code> query, but allows you
to specify multiple values to match. If the field contains any of
the specified values, the document matches:</p>
<div class="pre_wrapper lang-sense">
<pre class="programlisting prettyprint lang-sense">{ "terms": { "tag": [ "search", "full_text", "nosql" ] }}</pre>
</div>
<div class="sense_widget" data-snippet="snippets/054_Query_DSL/70_Terms_filter.json"></div>
<p>Like the <code class="literal">term</code> query, no analysis is performed on the input text.  It is looking
for exact matches (including differences in case, accents, spaces, etc).</p>
</div>

<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div>
<h3 class="title">
<a id="_exists_and_missing_queries"></a>exists and missing Queries<a class="edit_me edit_me_private" rel="nofollow" title="Editing on GitHub is available to Elastic" href="https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch-definitive-guide/edit/2.x/054_Query_DSL/70_Important_clauses.asciidoc">edit</a>
</h3>
</div></div></div>
<p>The <code class="literal">exists</code> and <code class="literal">missing</code> queries are used to find documents in which the
specified field either has one or more values (<code class="literal">exists</code>) or doesn’t have any
values (<code class="literal">missing</code>). It is similar in nature to <code class="literal">IS_NULL</code> (<code class="literal">missing</code>) and <code class="literal">NOT
IS_NULL</code> (<code class="literal">exists</code>)in SQL:</p>
<div class="pre_wrapper lang-sense">
<pre class="programlisting prettyprint lang-sense">{
    "exists":   {
        "field":    "title"
    }
}</pre>
</div>
<div class="sense_widget" data-snippet="snippets/054_Query_DSL/70_Exists_filter.json"></div>
<p>These queries are frequently used to apply a condition only if a field is
present, and to apply a different condition if it is missing.</p>
</div>

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